Pho Garden - San Francisco, CA

Pho Garden...home of the famous Pho Challenge! I came here in the summer of 2009 to run the SF Marathon and went all over town looking for this place. I wanted to see what the hype was all about. Mainly, it is about the Pho Challenge. It's quite unfortunate, but every time I travel or go out of town, I always have Vietnamese food cravings. I mean I live about 15 minutes from Little Saigon where some of the best Vietnamese food can be found, so it is quite inconvenient when I am far from home and crave Vietnamese food.

If you have never been to San Francisco in the summer time, let me tell you that it is not typical summer weather. It is about 40 degrees in the morning with a high of maybe 60. Obviously I did not know this the first time I went up there during the summer so I was under packed and a bit cold at times. I'm telling you this little fact because perhaps it was this chilly weather that made me want to eat Pho here in SF. This place was out of the way and pretty far from our hotel but I was curious to witness people doing the Pho Challenge. So with a map in hand, we set out looking for this place.

Some hot tea since it was chilly. It was actually raining a bit on this day.

Vietnamese dessert drink (Che) - this was just okay. 

This is the regular size bowl. The pho here is strangely not that great. A lot of hype due to the Pho Challenge but nothing special to write home about.

This is the wall of fame for those who manages to complete the challenge.

Seriously, check out the size of that bowl!

Pho Garden
2109 Clement Street (between 22nd & 23rd Ave)
San Francisco, CA 94121
(415) 379-8677